California Giant brings back Chef Invitational

California Giant Berry Farms is sponsoring a second annual Chef Invitational, seeking chefs at foodservice partners across the country to compete.

Finalists for the California Giant Top Chef honor will compete June 23-25 in Monterey, Calif.

Corporate chefs will use their creativity to compete with main dishes and desserts using berries. Tom Smith, California Giant director of foodservice, said the 2018 debut was a success.

“It was such a fun time and we had a lot of great collaboration with our distributor partners and their incredible chefs,” Smith said in a news release. “This time around we will also have Chef Luis Reyes from Sysco West Coast-Florida, the 2018 winner, to help share his experience and participate as a mentor at the 2019 event.”

California Giant will distribute invitations and entry guidelines to foodservice customers on Feb. 1 via e-newsletters and its foodservice website, according to the news release.

Recipes are due by May 1, and finalists will be announced May 15.

The competition will be at the Tehama Golf Club in Monterey.

Finalists will also participate in field tours, educational sessions with growers, and roundtables with California Giant influencers, sharing insights on food and consumer trends, according to the release. The influencers will use the chefs’ recipes to make consumer friendly versions to share on social media channels, a new element to the competition.

“This combination of professional chefs and consumer influencers really expands our reach providing a great opportunity for these two groups to come together and learn from each other, while becoming greater ambassadors for our brand,” Cindy Jewell, vice president of marketing, said in the release.